Italy expects answers in Cairo student death case

ROME: Egyptian officials handling a probe into the torture and murder of Giulio Regeni will Thursday brief their Italian counterparts on progress in a case that has caused a deepening rift between the two countries. Angered by the slow progress of the investigation and a perceived lack of cooperation from Cairo, Italy has warned its ally it will not settle for a “fabricated” account of the 28-year-old Cambridge student’s gruesome fate. Rome has also irked the Egyptians by warning of unspecified consequences if the Egyptian investigators do not hand over key evidence. The case is a testing one for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has fostered a close trade and security relationship with Egypt’s military-backed president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but is under enormous domestic pressure from public anger over the Regeni case.